Hangustald or Hexham in Northumberland we reade thus Vpon a certaine time in the daies of Colman metropolitan Bishop of the citie of Yorke Oswi and Alhfrid his sonne being Kings the Abbots and Priests and all the degrees of Ecclesiasticall orders meeting together at the monastery which is called Streaneshel in the presence of Hilde the most godly mother of that abbey in presence also of the Kings and the two Bishops Colman and Aegelberht inquiry was made touching the observation of Easter what was most right to bee held whether Easter should bee kept according to the custome of the Brittous and the Scots and all the Northren part upon the Lords day that came from the XIIII day of the Moone untill the XX. or whether it were better that Easter Sunday should bee celebrated from the XV. day of the Moone untill the XXI after the manner of the See Apostolick Time was given unto Bishop Colman in the first place as it was fit to deliver his reason in the audience of all Who with an undaunted minde made his answer and said Our fathers and their predecessors who were manifestly inspired by the holy Ghost as Columkille was did ordaine that Easter should be celebrated upon the Lords day that fell upon the XIIII Moone following the example of Iohn the Apostle and Evangelist who leaned upon the breast of our Lord at his last Supper and was called the lover of the Lord. Hee celebrated Easter upon the XIIII day of the Moone and wee with the same confidence celebrate the same as his Disciples Polycarpus and others did neyther dare wee for our parts neyther will wee change this Bede relateth his speech thus This Easter which I use to observe I received from my elders who did send me Bishop hither which all our fathers men beloved of God are knowne to have celebrated after the same manner Which that it may not seeme unto any to bee contemned and rejected it is the same which the blessed Evangelist Iohn the disciple specially beloved by our Lord with all the Churches whech he did oversee is read to have celebrated Fridegodus a who wrote the life of Wilfrid at the command of Odo Archbishop of Canterbury expresseth the same Verse after this manner Nos seriem patriam non frivola scripta tenemus Discipulo eusebit Polycarpo dante Iohannis Ille etenim bis septenae sub tempore Phoebae Sanctum praefixit nobis fore Pascha colendum Atque nefas dixit si quis contraria sentit On the contrary side Wilfrid objected unto Colman and his Clerkes of Ireland that they with their complices the Pictes and the Brittons out of the two utmost Iles and those not whole neyther did with a foolish labour fight against the whole world And if that Columb of yours saith he yea and ours also if hee were Christs was holy and powerfull in vertues could hee bee preferred before the most blessed Prince of the Apostles unto whom the Lord said Thou art Peter and upon this rocke will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it and I will give unto thee the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Which last words wrought much upon the simplicitie of King Oswy who feared that when hee should come to the doores of the kingdome of heaven there would bee none to open if hee were displeased who was proved to keepe the keyes but prevailed nothing with Bishop Colman who for the feare of his countrey as Stephen in the life of Wilfrid writeth contemned the tonsure and the observation of Easter used by the Romanes and taking with him such as would follow him that is to say such as would not receive the Catholike Easter and the tonsure of the crown for of that also there was then no small question returned back againe into Scotland CHAP. X. Of the height that the opposition betwixt the Romane party and that of the Brittish and Scottish grew unto and the abatement thereof in time and how the Doctors of the Scottish and Irish side have beene ever accounted most eminent men in the Catholike Church notwithstanding their dis-union from the Bishop of Rome IN Colmans roome Wilfrid was chosen Archbishop of Yorke who had learned at Rome from Archdeacon Boniface the course of Easter which the schismaticks of Brittaine and Ireland did not know so goe the words of Stephen the ancient writer of his life and afterward did brag that hee was the first which did teach the true Easter in Northumberland having cast out the Scots which did ordaine the Ecclesiasticall songs to bee parted on sides and which did command S. Benets rule to be observed by Monkes But when he was named to the Archbishopricke he refused it at the first as William of Malmesbury relateth lest he should receive his consecration from the Scottish Bishops or from such as the Scots had ordained whose communion the Apostolike See had rejected The speech which he used to this purpose unto the Kings that had chosen him is thus laid downe by Stephen the writer of his life O my honourable Lords the Kings it is necessary for us by all meanes providently to consider how with your election I may by the helpe of God come to the degree of a Bishop without the accusation of catholike men For there be many Bishops here in Brittaine none of whom it is my part to accuse ordained within these foureteene yeares by the Brittons and Scots whom neyther the See Apostolicke hath received into her communion nor yet such as consent with the schâ—smaticks And therefore in my humility I request of you that you would send me with your warrant beyond the Sea into the countrey of France where many Catholike Bishops are to be had that without any controversie of the Apostolike See I may be counted meet though unworthy to receive the degree of a Bishop While Wilfrid protracted time beyond the Seas King Oswy ledde by the advice of the Quartadecimans so they injuriously nicknamed the Brittish and Irish that did celebrate Easter from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of the moone appointed a most religious servant of God and an admirable Doctor that came from Ireland named Ceadda to be ordained Bishop of Yorke in his roome Constituunt etenim perverso canone Coeddam Moribus acclinem doctrinae robore fortem Praesulis eximij servare cubilia sicque Audacter vivo sponsam rapuere marito saith Fridegodus This Ceadda being the scholler of Bishop Aidan was far otherwise affected to the Brittish and Irish than Wilfrid was and therefore was content to receive his ordination from Wini Bishop of the West-Saxons and tow other Brittish Bishops that were of the Quartadeciman partie For at that time as Bede noteth there was not in all Brittaine any Bishop canonically ordained that is to say by such as were of the communion of the Church of Rome except that Wini only
you see what a goodly title here is in the meane time First the Donation of Constantine hath been long since discovered to be a notorious forgerie and is rejected by all men of judgement as a senslesse fiction Secondly in the whole context of this forged Donation I find mention made of Ilands in one place only where no more power is given to the Church of Rome over them than in generall over the whole Continent by East and by West by North and by South and in particular over Iudaea Graecia Asia Thracia and Aphrica which use not to passe in the account of St. Peters temporall patrimonie Thirdly it doth not appeare that Constantine himselfe had any interest in the Kingdome of Ireland how then could hee conferre it upon another Some words there be in an oration of Eumenius the Rhetorician by which peradventure it may bee collected that his father Constantius bare some stroke here but that the Iland was ever possessed by the Romanes or accounted a parcell of the Empire cannot be proved by any sufficient testimonie of antiquitie Fourthly the late writers that are of another mind as Pomponius Laetus Cuspinian and others doe yet affirme withall that in the division of the Empire after Constantines death Ireland was assigned unto Constantinus the eldest sonne which will hardly stand with this donation of the Ilands supposed to bee formerly made unto the Bishop of Rome and his successors Pope Adrian therefore and Iohn of Salisbury his sollicitor had need seeke some better warrant for the title of Ireland than the Donation of Constantine Iohn Harding in his Chronicle saith that the Kings of England have right To Ireland also by King Henry le fitz Of Maude daughter of first King Henry That conquered it for their great heresie which in another place he expresseth more at large in this manner The King Henry then conquered all Ireland By Papall dome there of his royaltee The profits and revenues of the land The domination and the soveraigntee For errour which agayn the spiritualtee They held full long and would not been correct Of heresies with which they were infect Philip Osullevan on the other side doth not only deny that Ireland was infected with any heresie but would also have us beleeve that the Pope never intended to conferre the Lordship of Ireland upon the Kings of England For where it is said in Pope Adrians Bull Let the people of that land receive thee and reverence thee as a Lord the meaning thereof is saith this Glozer Let them reverence thee as a Prince worthy of great honour not as Lord of Ireland but as a Deputie appointed for the collecting of the Ecclesiasticall tribute It is true indeed that King Henry the second to the end hee might the more easily obtaine the Popes good wil for his entring upon Ireland did voluntarily offer unto him the payment of a yearely pension of one penny out of every house in the countrey which for ought that I can learne was the first Ecclesiasticall tribute that ever came unto the Popes coffers out of Ireland But that King Henry got nothing else by the bargaine but the bare office of collecting the Popes Smoke-silver for so wee called it here when wee payed it is so dull a conceit that I doe somewhat wonder how Osullevan himselfe could be such a blocke-head as not to discerne the senselesnesse of it What the King sought for and obtained is sufficiently declared by them that writ the historie of his reigne In the yeare of our Lord MCLV. the first Bull was sent unto him by Pope Adrian the summe whereof is thus laid down in a second Bull directed unto him by Alexander the third the immediate successor of the other Following the stepps of reverend Pope Adrian and attending the fruit of your desire we ratifie and confirme his grant concerning the dominion of the KINGDOME of Ireland conferred upon you reserving unto St. Peter and the holy Church of Rome as in England so in Ireland the yearely pension of one penny out of every house In this sort did Pope Adrian as much as lay in him give Ireland unto King Henry haereditario jure possidendam to bee possessed by right of inheritance withall sent unto him a ring of gold set with a faire Emerauld for his investiture in the right thereof as Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was the principall agent betwixt them both in this businesse doth expresly testifie After this in the year MCLXXI the King himselfe came hither in person where the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland received him for their KING and Lord. The King saith Iohn Brampton received letters from every Archbishop and Bishop with their seales hanging upon them in the manner of an Indenture confirming the KINGDOME of Ireland unto him and his heyres and bearing witnesse that they in Ireland had ordained him and his heyres to bee their KINGS and Lords for ever At Waterford saith Roger Hoveden all the Archbishops Bishops and Abbots of Ireland came unto the King of England and received him for KING and Lord of Ireland swearing fealty to him and to his heyres and power to reigne over them for ever and hereof they gave him their Instruments The Kings also and Princes of Ireland by the example of the Clergie did in like manner receive Henry King of England for Lord and KING of Ireland and became his men or did him homage and swore fealty to him and his heyres against all men These things were presently after confirmed in the Nationall Synod held at Casshell the Acts whereof in Giraldus Cambrensis are thus concluded For it is fit and most meet that as Ireland by Gods appointment hath gotten a Lord and a KING from England so also they should from thence receive a better forme of living King Henry also at the same time sent a transcript of the Instruments of all the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland unto Pope Alexander who by his Apostolicall authority for so was it in those dayes of darknesse esteemed to bee did confirme the KINGDOME of Ireland unto him and his heyres according to the forme of the Instruments of the Archbishops Bishops of Ireland and made them KINGS thereof for ever The King also obtained further from Pope Alexander that it might bee lawfull for him to make which of his sonnes hee pleased KING of Ireland and to crowne him accordingly and to subdue the Kings and great ones of that land which would not subject themselves unto him Whereupon in a grand Councell held at Oxford in the yeere of our Lord MCLXXVII before the Bishops and Peeres of the Kingdome hee constituted his sonne Iohn KING of Ireland according to that grant and confirmation of Pope Alexander And to make the matter yet more sure in the yeere MCLXXXVI hee obtained a new licence from Pope Vrban the third that one of
that which we read in the life of St. Brendan that the question being moved in his hearing Whether the sinnes of the dead could be redeemed by the prayers or almes-deeds of their friends remaining in this life for that was still a question in the Church he is said to have told them that on a certaine night as hee sayled in the great Ocean the soule of one Colman who had beene an angry Monke and a sower of discord betwixt brethren appeared unto him who complaining of his grievous torments intreated that prayers might be made to God for him and after sixe dayes thankefully acknowledged that by meanes thereof hee had gotten into heaven Whereupon it is concluded that the prayer of the living doth profit much the dead But of S. Brendans sea-pilgrimage we have the censure of Molanus a learned Romanist that there bee many apocryhall fooleries in it and whosoever readeth the same with any judgement cannot choose but pronounce of it as Photius doth of the strange narrations of Damascius formerly mentioned that it containeth not only apocryphall but also impossible incredible ill-composed and monstruous fooleries Whereof though the old Legend it selfe were not free as by the heads thereof touched by Glaber Rodulphus and Giraldus Cambrensis may appeare yet for the tale that I recited out of the New Legend of England I can say that in the manuscript books which I have met withall here in St. Brendans owne country one whereof was transcribed for the use of the Friars minors of Kilkenny about the yeere of our Lord 1350. there is not the least footstep thereof to be seene And this is a thing very observable in the ancienter lives of our Saints such I meane as have beene written before the time of Sathans loosing beyond which we doe not now looke that the prayers and oblations for the dead mentioned therein are expressly noted to have beene made for them whose soules were supposed at the same instant to have rested in blisse So Adamnanus reporteth that Saint Colme called by the Irish both in Bedes and our dayes Colum-kille caused all things to be prepared for the sacred ministry of the Eucharist when he had seene the soule of St. Brendan received by the holy Angels and that hee did the like when Columbanus Bishop of Leinster departed this life for I must to day saith St. Colme there although I bee unworthy celebrate the holy mysteries of the Eucharist for the reverence of that soule which this night carried beyond the starry firmament betwixt the holy Quires of Angels ascended into Paradise Whereby it appeareth that an honourable commemoration of the dead was herein intended and a sacrifice of thanksgiving for their salvation rather than of propitiation for their sinnes In Bede also wee finde mention of the like obsequies celebrated by St. Cuthbert for one Hadwaldus after he had seene his soule carried by the hands of Angels unto the joyes of the kingdome of heaven So Gallus and Magnus as Walafridus Strabus relateth in the life of the one and Theodorus Campidonensis or whosoever else was author of the life of the other said Masse which what it was in those dayes wee shall afterward heare and were instant in prayers for the commemoration of Abbat Columbanus their countryman frequenting the memory of that great Father with holy prayers and healthfull sacrifices Where that speech of Gallus unto his Deacon Magnus or Magnoaldus is worthy of speciall consideration After this nights watch I understood by a vision that my master and father Columbanus is to day departed out of the miseries of this life unto the joyes of Paradise For his rest therefore I ought to offer the sacrifice of salvation In like manner also when Gallus himselfe dyed Iohn Bishop of Constance prayed to the Lord for his rest and offered healthfull sacrifices for him although he were certainly perswaded that he had attained the blessing of everlasting life as may bee seene in Walafridus And when Magnus afterwards was in his death bed hee is said to have used these words unto Tozzo Bishop of Ausborough that came to visit him Doe not weepe reverend Prelate because thou beholdest me labouring in so many stormes of worldly troubles because I beleeve in the mercy of God that my soule shall rejoyce in the freedome of immortalitie yet I beseech thee that thou wilt not cease to helpe mee a sinner and my soule with thy holy prayers Then followeth that at the time of his departure this voice was heard Come Magnus come receive the crowne which the Lord hath prepared for thee and that thereupon Tozzo said unto Theodorus the supposed writer of this history Let us cease weeping brother because wee ought rather to rejoyce having heard this signe of the receiving of his soule unto immortality than to make lamentation but let us goe to the Church and be carefull to offer healthfull sacrifices to the Lord for so deare a friend I dispute not of the credit of these particular passages it is sufficient that the authors from whom wee have received them lived within the compasse of those times whereof wee now doe treate For thereby it is plaine enough and if it be not it shall elsewhere be made yet more plaine that in those elder dayes it was an usuall thing to make prayers and oblations for the rest of those soules which were not doubted to have beene in glorie and consequently that neither the Commemoration nor the Praying for the dead nor the Requiem Masses of that age have any necessary relation to the beleefe of Purgatory The lesson therefore which Claudius teacheth us here out of Saint Hierome is very good that while wee are in this present world wee may bee able to helpe one another either by our prayers or◠by our counsailes but when wee shall come before the Iudgement seate of Christ neither Iob nor Daniel nor Noah can intreate for any one but every one must beare his owne burden and the advice which the no lesse learned than godly Abbat Columbanus giveth us is verie safe not to pitch upon uncertainties hereafter but now to trust in God and follow the precepts of Christ while our life doth yet remaine and while the times wherein we may obtaine salvation are certaine Vive Deo fidens saith he Christi praecepta sequēdo Dum modò vita manet dum tempora certa salutis Whereunto Iohn the Briton another son of Sulgen Bishop of St. Davids seemeth also to have had an eye when at the end of the Poëme which he wrote of his owne and his fathers life he prayeth for himselfe in the same manner Vt genitor clemens solitâ pietate remittat Factis aut dictis quae gessi corde nefando Dum mihi vita manet dum flendi flumina possunt Nam cum tartareis nullius cura subintrat CHAP. IV. Of the Worship of God the publicke forme
flourished in the vigour of Christian doctrine as Abbot Ionas testifieth that it exceeded the faith of all the neighbour nations and in that respect was generally had in honour by them CHAP. XI Of the temporall power which the Popes followers would directly intitle him unto over the Kingdome of Ireland together with the indirect power which he challengeth in absolving subjects from the obedience which they owe to their temporall Governours IT now remaineth that in the last place wee should consider the Popes power in disposing the temporall state of this Kingdome which eyther directly or indirectly by hooke or by crooke this grand Usurper would draw unto himselfe First therefore Cardinall Allen would have us to know that the Sea Apostolike hath an old claime unto the soveraigntie of the countrey of Ireland and that before the Covenants passed betweene King Iohn and the same Sea Which challenges saith he Princes commonly yeeld not up by what ground soever they come What Princes use to yeeld or not yeeld I leave to the scanning of those unto whom Princes matters doe belong for the Cardinals Prince I dare be bold to say that if it bee not his use to play fast and loose with other Princes the matter is not now to doe whatsoever right he could pretend to the temporall state of Ireland hee hath transferred it more than once unto the Kings of England and when the ground of his claime shall be looked into it will bee found so frivolous and so ridiculous that we need not care three chippes whether he yeeld it up or keep it to himselfe For whatsoever become of his idle challenges the Crowne of England hath otherwise obtained an undoubted right unto the soveraigntie of this countrey partly by Conquest prosecuted at first upon occasion of a Sociall warre partly by the severall submissions of the chiefetaines of the land made afterwards For wheras it is it free for all men although they have been formerly quitt from all subjection to renounce their owne right yet now in these our daies saith Giraldus Cambrensis in his historie of the Conquest of Ireland all the Princes of Ireland did voluntarily submitt and binde themselves with firme bonds of faith and oath unto Henry the second King of England The like might be said of the generall submissions made in the dayes of King Richard the second and King Henry the eighth to speake nothing of the prescription of divers hundreds of yeares possession which was the plea that Iephte used to the Ammonites and is indeed the best evidence that the Bishop of Romes own Proctors do produce for their Masters right to Rome it selfe For the Popes direct dominion over Ireland two titles are brought forth beside those covenants of King Iohn mentioned by Allen which hee that hath any understanding in our state knoweth to be clearly voide and worth nothing The one is taken from a speciall grant supposed to bee made by the inhabitants of the countrey at the time of their first conversion unto Christianitie the other from a right which the Pope challengeth unto himselfe over all Ilands in generall The former of these was devised of late by an Italian in the reigne of King Henry the eighth the later was found out in the daies of King Henry the second before whose time not one footestep doth appeare in all antiquitie of any claime that the Bishop of Rome should make to the dominion of Ireland no not in the Popes owne records which have beene curiously searched by Nicolaus Arragonius and other ministers of his who have purposely written of the particulars of his temporall estate The Italian of whom I spake is Polydore Vergil he that composed the booke De inventoribus rerum of the first Inventers of things among whom hee himselfe may challenge a place for this invention if the Inventers of lyes bee admitted to have any roome in that companie This man being sent over by the Pope into England for the collecting of his Peter-pence undertooke the writing of the historie of that nation wherein he forgat not by the way to doe the best service hee could to his Lord that had imployed him thither There hee telleth an idle tale how the Irish being moved to accept Henry the second for their King did deny that this could be done otherwise than by the Bishop of Romes anthoritie because forsooth that from the very beginning after they had accepted Christian Religion they had yeelded themselves and all that they had into his power and they did constantly affirme saith this fabler that they had no other Lord beside the Pope of which also they yet doe bragge The Italian is followed herein by two Englishmen that wished the Popes advancement as much as hee Edmund Campian and Nicholas Sanders the one whereof writeth that immediately after Christianitie planted here the whole Iland with one consent gave themselves not onely into the spirituall but also into the temporall Iurisdiction of the See of Rome the other in Polydores owne words though hee name him not that the Irish from the beginning presently after they had received Christian Religion gave up themselves and all that they had into the power of the Bishop of Rome and that untill the time of King Henry the second they did acknowledge no other supreme Prince of Ireland beside of the Bishop of Rome alone For confutation of which dreame we need not have recourse to our owne Chronicles the Bull of Adrian the fourth wherein hee giveth libertie of King Henry the second to enter upon Ireland sufficiently discovereth the vanitie thereof For hee there shewing what right the Church of Rome pretended unto Ireland maketh no mention at all of this which had beene the fairest and clearest title that could bee alledged if any such had been then existent in rerum naturâ but is faine to flie unto a farre-fetcht interest which hee saith the Church of Rome hath unto all Christian Ilands Truly saith he to the King there is no doubt but that all Ilands unto which Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse hath shined and which have received the instructions of the Christian faith doe pertaine to the right of Saint Peter and the holy Church of Rome which your Noblenesse also doth acknowledge If you would further understand the ground of this strange claime whereby all Christian Ilands at a clap are challenged to bee parcell of St. Peters patrimonie you shall have it from Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was most inward with Pope Adrian and obtained from him this very grant whereof now wee are speaking At my request saith he he granted Ireland to the illustrious King of England Henry the second and gave it to bee possessed by right of inheritance as his owne letters doe testifie unto this day For all Ilands of ancient right are said to belong to the Church of Rome by the donation of Constantine who founded endowed the same But will
onely justifieth and in this meaning onely doe we defend that proposition understanding still by faith not a dead carkase thereof for how should the just bee able to live by a dead faith but a true and lively faith which worketh by love For as it is a certaine truth that among all the members of the body the eye is the onely instrument whereby we see and yet it is as true also that the eye being alone and separated from the rest of the members is dead and for that cause doth neither see onely not see at all so these two sayings likewise may stand well enough together that among all the vertues in the foule faith is the onely instrument whereby wee lay hold upon Christ for our justification and yet that faith being alone and disjoyned from the society of other graces is dead in it selfe as St. Iames speaketh and in that respect can neither only justifie nor justifie at all So though Claudius doe teach as wee doe that faith alone saveth us because by the workes of the law no man shall bee justified yet hee addeth withall this caution Not as if the workes of the law should be contemned and without them a simple faith so hee calleth that solitary faith whereof we spake which is a simple faith indeed should bee desired but that the workes themselves should bee adorned with the faith of Christ. For that sentence of the wise man is excellent that the faithfull man doth not live by righteousnesse but the righteous man by faith In like manner Sedulius acknowledgeth with us that God hath purposed by faith onely to forgive our sinnes freely and by faith onely to save the beleevers and that when men have fallen they are to bee renewed onely by the faith of Christ which worketh by love intimating by this last clause that howsoever faith onely be it which justifieth the man yet the worke of love is necessarily required for all that to justifie the faith And this faith saith he when it hath beene iustified sticketh in the soyle of the soule like a roote which hath received a showre that when it hath begunne to be manured by the law of God it may rise up againe into bowes which may beare the fruit of workes Therefore the roote of righteousnesse doth not grow out of works but the fruit of works out of the root of righteousnesse namely out of that root of righteousnesse which God doth accept for righteousnesse without workes The conclusion is that saving faith is alwaies a fruitfull faith and though it never goe alone yet may there be some gift of God which it alone is able to reach unto as Columbanus also implieth in that verse Sola fides fidei dono ditabitur almo The greatest depressers of Gods grace and the advancers of mans abilities were Pelagius and Celestiusâ— the one borne in Brittaine as appeareth by Prosper Aquitanus the other in Scotland or Ireland as M r. Persons doth gather out of those words of S. Hierom in one of the Prefaces of his commentaries not upon Ezechiel as he quoteth it but upon Ieremy He hath his off-spring from the Scottish nation neere to the Britans These hereticks as our Marianus noteth out of Prosper in his Chronicle preached among other of their impieties that for attaining of righteousnesse every one was governed by his owne will and received so much grace as he did merit Whole venemous doctrine was in Brittaine repressed first by Palladius Lupus Germanus and Severus from abroad afterward by David Menevensis and his successors at home agreeably to whose institution Asser. Menâ—vensis doth professe that God is alwaies to bee esteemed both the mover of the will and the bestower of the good that is willed for hee is saith hee the instigatour of all good wills and withall the most bountifull provider that the good things desired may bee had forasmuch as hee would never stirre up any to will well unlesse hee did also liberally supply that which every one doth well and justly desire to obtaine Among our Irish the grounds of sound doctrine in these points were at the beginning well settled by Palladius and Patricius sent hither by Celestinus Bishop of Rome And when the poyson of the Pelagian heresie about two hundred yeares after that beganne to breake out among them the Clergie of Rome in the yeare of our Lord DCXXXIX during the vacancie of the See upon the death of Severinus directed their letters unto them for the preventing of this growing mischiefe Wherein among other things they put them in minde that it is both blasphemy and folly to say that a man is without sinne which none at all can say but that one mediatour betwixt God and man the man Christ Iesus who was conceived and borne without sinne Which is agreeable partly to that of Claudius that it is manifest unto all wise men although it bee contradicted by heretickes that there is none who can live upon earth without the touch of some sinne partly to that of Sedulius that there is none of the elect so great whom the Divell doth not dare to accuse but him alone who did no sinne and who said The Prince of this world commeth now and in mee bee findeth nothing For touching the imperfection of our sanctification in this life these men held the same that wee doe to wit that the Law cannot be fulfilled that there is none that doth good that is to say perfect and entire good that Gods elect shall be perfectly holy and immaculate in the life to come where the Church of Christ shall have no spot nor wrinkle whereas in this present life they are righteous holy and immaculate not wholly but in part only that the righteous shall then be without all kinde of sinne when there shall be no law in their members that shall resist the law of their minde that although sinne doe not now reigne in their mortall body to obey the desires thereof yet sin dwelleth in that mortall body the force of that naturall custome being not yet extinguished which we have gotten by our originall and increased by our actual transgressions And as for the matter of merit Sedulius doth resolve us out of S. Paul that we are Saints by the calling of God not by the merit of our deed that God is able to exceeding abundantly above that we aske or think according to the power that worketh in us not according to our merits that whatsoever men have from God is grace because they have nothing of due and that nothing can bee found worthy or to bee compared with the glorie to come CHAP. III. Of Purgatory and Prayer for the dead THe next Point that offereth it selfe unto our consideration is that of Purgatory Whereof if any man doe doubt Caesarius a Germane Monke of the Cistercian order adviseth him for his resolution
of Liturgie the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Lords Supper TOuching the worship of God Sedulius delivereth this generall rule that to adore any other beside the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost is the crime of impiety and that all that the soule oweth unto God if it bestow it upon any beside God it committeth adultery More particularly in the matter of Images hee reproveth the wise men of the heathen for thinking that they had found out a way how the invisible God might bee worshipped by a visible image with whom also accordeth Claudius that God is to bee knowne neither in mettall nor in stone and for Oathes there is a Canon ascribed to Saint Patricke wherein it is determined that no creature is to bee sworne by but onely the Creator As for the forme of the Litugrie or publicke service of God which the same St. Patrick brought into this country it is said that hee received it from Germanus and Lupus and that it originally descended from S. Marke the Evangelist for so have I seene it set downe in an ancient fragment written wellnigh 900. yeeres since remaining now in the Library of Sir Robert Cotton my worthy friend who can never sufficiently bee commended for his extraordinary care in preserving all rare monuments of this kinde Yea St. Hieromes authority is there vouched for proofe hereof Beatus Hieronymus adfirmat quòd ipsum cursum qui dicitur praesente tempore Scottorum beatus Marcus decantaâ—it which being not now to bee found in any of Saint Hieroms workes the truth thereof I leave unto the credit of the reporter But whatsoever Liturgie was used here at first this is sure that in the succeeding ages no one generall forme of divine service was retained but diverse rites and manners of celebrations were observed in diverse parts of this Kingdome untill the Romane use was brought in at last by Gillebertus and Malachias and Christianus who were the Popes Legates here about 500. yeeres agoe This Gillebertus an old acquaintance of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury in the Prologue of his booke De usu Ecclesiastico directed to the whole Clergie of Ireland writeth in this manner At the request yea and at the command of many of you dearely beloved I endevoured to set downe in writing the Canonicall custome in saying of Houres and performing the Office of the whole Ecclesiasticall Order not presumptuously but in desire to serve your most godly command to the end that those diverse and schismaticall Orders wherewith in a manner all Ireland is deluded may give place to one Catholicke and Romane Office For what may bee said to bee more undecent or schismaticall than that the most learned in one order should bee made as a private and lay man in another mans Church These beginnings were presently seconded by Malachias in whose life written by Bernard wee reade as followeth The Apostolicall constitutions and the decrees of the holy Fathers but especially the customes of the holy Church of Rome did he establish in all Churches And hence it is that at this day the Canonicall Houres are chanted and sung therein according to the manner of the whole earth whereas before that this was not done no not in the Citie it selfe the poore city of Ardmagh he meaneth But Malachias had learned song in his youth and shortly after caused singing to be used in his own Monasterie when as yet aswell in the citie as in the whole Bishoprick they eyther knew not or would not sing Lastly the worke was brought to perfection when Christianus Bishop of Lismore as Legate to the Pope was President in the Councell of Casshell wherein a speciall order was taken for the right singing of the Ecclesiasticall Office and a generall act established that all divine offices of holy Church should from thenceforth be handled in all parts of Ireland according as the Church of England dâ—d observe them The statutes of which Councell were confirmed by the Regall authoritie of King Henry the second by whose mandate the Bishops that met therein were assembled in the yeare of our Lord 1171. as Giraldus Cambrensis witnesseth in his historie of the Conquest of Ireland And thus late was it before the Romane use was fully settled in this Kingdome That the Britons used another manner in the administration of the Sacrament of Baptisme than the Romanes did appeareth by the proposition made unto them by Austin the Monke that they should performe the ministerie of baptisme according to the custome of the Church of Rome That their forme of Liturgie was the same with that which was received by their neighbours the Galls is intimated by the Author of that ancient fragment before alledged who also addeth that the Gallican Order was received in the Church throughout the whole world Yet elsewhere doe I meete with a sentence alledged out of Gildas that the Britons were contrary to the whole world and enemies to the Roman customes aswell in their Masse as in their Tonsure Where to let passe what I have collected touching the difference of these tonsures as a matter of very small moment eyther way and to speake somewhat of the Masse for which so great adoe is now adayes made by our Romanists wee may observe in the first place that the publike Liturgie or service of the Church was of old named the Masse even then also when prayers only were said without the celebration of the holy Communion So the last Masse that S. Colme was ever present at is noted by Adamnanus to have beene vespertinalis Dominica noctis Missa He dyed the mid-night following whence the Lords day tooke his beginning 9â— viz. Iunii Anno Dom. 597. according to the account of the Romanes which the Scottish and Irish seeme to have begunne from the evening going before and then was that evening-Masse said which in all likelihood differed not from those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Leo the Emperour in his Tacticks that is to say from that which we call Even-song or Evening prayer But the name of the Masse was in those daies more specially applied to the administration fo the Lords Supper therfore in the same Adamnanus we see that Sacra Eucharistiae ministeria and Missarum solemnia the sacred ministerie of the Eucharist and the solemnities of the Masse are taken for the same thing So likewise in the relation of the passages that concerne the obsequies of Columbanus performed by Gallus and Magnoaldus we finde that Missam celebrare and Missas agere is made to be the same with Divina celebrare mysteria and Salutis hostiam or salutare sacrificium immolare the saying of Masse the same with the celebration of the divine mysteries and the oblation of the healthfull sacrifice for by that terme was the administration of the sacrament of the Lords Supper at that time usually designed For as in
having received the order of Priest-hood should have another sonne by the same woman the former son should enjoy his fathers whole estate without being bound to divide the same with his other brother Yet these marriages for all that were so held out that the fathers not content their sonnes should succeed them in their temporall estate alone prevailed so far that they continued them in the succession of their spirituall promotions also Which abuse Giraldus Cambrensis complaineth to have been continuedin Wales unto his time out of Hilâ—ebertus Cenomanensis sheweth to have prevailed in little Brittaine also whence he inferreth that this vice was of old common to the whole Brittish nation aswell on this side as on the other side of the sea Whereunto for Ireland also wee may adde the letters written by Pope Innocent the third unto Iohannes Salernitanus the Cardinall his legate for abolishing the custome there whereby sonnes and grand-children did use to succeede their fathers and grand-fathers in their Ecclesiastical benefices CHAP. VI. Of the discipline of our ancient Monkes and abstinence from meats WHat hath beene said of the married Clergie concerneth the Seculars and not the Regulars whereof there was a very great number in Ireland because here almost all the Prelates were wont to bee chosen into the Clergie out of monasteries For our monasteries in ancient time were the seminaries of the ministerie being as it were so many Colledges of learned divines whereunto the people did usually resort for instruction and from whence the Church was wont continually to bee supplied with able ministers The benefit whereof was not onely contained within the limits of this Iland but did extend it selfe to forraine countries likewise For this was it that drew Egbert and Ceaddae for example into Ireland that they might there leade a monasticall life in prayers and continencie and meditation of the holy Scriptures and hence were those famous monasteries planted in England by Aidan Finan Colman and others unto which the people flockt apace on the Lords day not for the feeding of their body but for the learning of the word of God as Beda witnesseth Yea this was the principall meanes whereby the knowledge both of the Scriptures and of all other good learning was preserved in that inundation of barbarisme wherewith the whole West was in a manner overwhelmed Hitherto saith Curio it might seeme that the studies of wisedome should quite have perished unlesse God had reserved a seed in some corner of the world Among the Scottish and the Irish something as yet remained of the doctrine of the knowledge of God and of civill honesty because there was no terrour of armes in those utmost ends of the world And we may there behold and adore the great goodnesse of God that among the Scots and in those places where no man would have thought it so many great companies should bee gathered together under a most strict discipline How strict their discipline was may appeare partly by the Rule and partly by the Daily penances of Monkes which are yet extant of Columbanus his writing In the later of these for the disobedience of Monkes these penances are prescribed If any brother bee disobedient hee shall fast two dayes with one bisket and water If any say I will not do it three dayes with one bisket and water If any murmure two dayes with one bisket and water If any doe not aske leave or tell an excuse two dayes with one bisket and water and so in other particulars In his Rule these good lessons doth hee give unto his Monkes among many others That it profited them little if they were virgins in body and were not virgins in minde that they should daily profit as they did daily pray and daily reade that the good things of the Pharisee being vainly praised were lost and the sinnes of the Publican being accused vanished away and therefore that a great word should not come out of the mouth of a Monke lest his great labour should perish They were not taught to vaunt of their state of perfection and workes of supererogation or to argue from thence as Celestius the Pelagian Monke sometime did that by the nature of their free will they had such a possibility of not sinning that they were able also to doe more than was commanded because they did observe perpetuall virginity which is not commanded whereas for not sinning it is sufficient to fulfill the precepts It was one of the points which Gallus the scholler of Columbanus delivered in his sermon preached at Constance that our Saviour did so perswade the Apostles their followers to lay hold upon the good of virginity that yet they should know it was not of humane industry but of divine gift and it is a good observation which wee reade in Claudius that not only in the splendour of bodily things but also in mournfull abasing of ones selfe there may bee boasting and that so much the more dangerous as it deceiveth under the name of the service of God Our Monkes were religious in deede and not in name only farre from the hypocrisie pride idlenesse and uncleannesse of those evill beasts and slothfull bellies that afterward succeeded in their roome Under colour of forsaking all they did not hooke all unto themselves nor under semblance of devotion did they devoure widowes houses they held begging to bee no point of perfection but remembred the words of our Lord Iesus how he said It is a more blessed thing to give rather than to take When king Sigebert made large offers unto Columbanus and his companions to keep them within his dominions in France hee received such another answer from them as Thaddaeus in the Ecclesiasticall history is said to have given unto Abgarus the governour of Edessa Wee who have forsaken our owne that according to the commandement of the Gospel we might follow the Lord ought not to embrace other mens riches lest peradventure we should prove transgressors of the divine commandement How then did these men live will you say Walafridus Strabus telleth us that some of them wrought in the garden others dressed the orchard Gallus made nets and tooke fish wherewith hee not only relieved his owne company but was helpfull also unto strangers So Bede reporteth of Cuthbert that when hee retired himselfe unto an anchoreticall life he first indeed received a little bread from his brethren to feede upon and dranke out of his owne well but afterwards hee thought it more fit to live by the worke of his owne hands after the example of the Fathers and therefore intreated that instruments might bee brought him wherewith he might till the earth and corne that hee might sowe Quique suis cupiens victum conquirere palmis Incultam pertentat humum proscindere ferro Et sator edomitis anni spem credere glebis The like doth hee relate
the Roman Church were wont to observe abstinence both from meate and from the marriage bed Whence in the booke before alledged of the Daily Penances of Monkes we finde this order set downe by the same Columbanus that if any one unlesse he were weake did upon the Wednesday or Friday eate before the ninth houre that is to say before three of the clocke in the afternoone according unto our account hee should be punished with fasting two dayes in bread and water and in Bedes Ecclesiasticall Historie that such as followed the information of Aidan did upon the same dayes observe their fast untill the same houre in which history we also reade of Bishop Cedd who was brought up at Lindisfarne with our Aidan and Finan that keeping a strict fast upon a speciall occasion in the time of Lent hee did every day except the Lords day continue his fast as the manner was untill the evening and then also did eate nothing but a small pittance of bread and one egge with a little milke mingled with water Where by the way you may note that in those daies egges were eaten in Lent and the Sundayes excepted from fasting even then when the abstinence was precisely and in more than an ordinarie manner observed But generally for this point of the difference of meats it is well noted by Claudius out of S. Augustin that the children of wisedome doe understand that neither in abstaining nor in eating is there any vertue but in contentednesse of bearing the want and temperance of not corrupting a mans selfe by abundance and of opportunely taking or not taking those things of which not the use but the concupiscence is to be blamed and in the life of Furseus the hypocrisie of them is justly taxed that being assaulted with spirituall vices doe yet omit the care of them and afflict their body with abstinence who abstaining from meates which God hath created to be received with thankesgiving fall to wicked things as if they were lawfull namely to pride covetousnesse envy false witnessing backbiting Of whom Gildas giveth this good censure in one of his Epistles which now are lost These men while they doe feed on bread by measure for this same very thing doe glory without measure while they use water they are withall drenched with the cup of hatred while they feed on dry meates they use detractions while they spend themselves in watchings they disprayse others that are oppressed with sleepe preferring fasting before charitie watching before justice their owne invention before concord severitie before humilitie and lastly man before God Such mens fasting unlesse it be proceeded unto by some vertues profiteth nothing at all but such as accomplish charitie doe say with the harpe of the holy Ghost All our righteousnesses are as the cloth of a menstruous woman Thus Gildas who upon this ground layeth downe this sound conclusion wherewith wee will shut up this whole matter Abstinence from corporall meats is unprofitable without charitie They are therefore the better men who doe not fast much nor abstaine from the creature of God beyond measure but carefully keepe their heart within pure before God from whence they know commeth the issue of life than they who eate no flesh nor take delight in secular dinners nor ride with coaches or horses thinking themselves hereby to bee as it were superiour to others upon whom death hath entred through the windows of haughtinesse CHAP. VII Of the Church and various state thereof especially in the dayes of Antichrist of Miracles also and of the Head of the Church COncerning the Catholike Church our Doctors taught with S. Gregory that God hath a vineyard to wit the universall Church which from just Abel untill the last of the elect that shall be borne in the end of the world as many Saints as it hath brought forth so many branches as it were hath it budded that the congregation of the just is called the kingdome of heaven which is the Church of the just that the sonnes of the Church bee all such as from the beginning of mankinde untill now have attained to be just and holy that what is said of the body may bee said also of the members and that in this respect as well the Apostles and all beleevers as the Church it selfe have the title of a pillar given them in the Scriptures that the Church may be considered two manner of wayes both that which neyther hath spot nor wrinkle and is truely the body of Christ and that which is gathered in the name of Christ without full and perfect vertues which notwithstanding by the warrant of the Apostle may have the name of the Church given unto it although it be depraved with errour that the Church is said not to have spot or wrinkle in respect of the life to come that when the Apostle saith In a great house there are not only vessels of gold c. but some to honour and some to dishonour 2 Tim. 2. 20. by this great house he doth not understand the Church as some have thought which hath not spot nor wrinkle but the world in which the tares are mingled with the wheate that yet in the holy Church also the evill are mingled with the good and the reprobate with the elect and that in this respect it is resembled unto the wise and foolish virgins as also to the Kings marriage by which this present Church is designed wherein the good and the bad doe meet together So that in this Church neyther the bad can bee without the good nor the good without the bad whom the holy Church notwithstanding doth both now receive indifferently and separate afterwards at their going from hence The number of the good Gildas complaineth to have beene so exceeding short in his time among the Britons in comparison of the other that their mother the Church in a manner did not see them lying in her own lap albeit they were the onely true sonnes which she had And for externall pressures our Doctors have delivered that the Church sometimes is not only afflicted but also defiled with such oppressions of the Gentiles that if it were possible her redeemer might seeme for a time utterly to have forsaken her and that in the raging times of Antichrist the Church shall not appeare by reason that the wicked persecutors shall then exercise their cruelty beyond all measure that in those times of Antichrist not onely more often and more bitter torments shall be put upon the faithfull than before were wont to be but which is more grievous the working of miracles also shall accompany those that inflict the torments as the Apostle witnesseth saying Whose comming is after the working of Satan with all seduction signes and lying wonders namely juggling ones as it was foretold before They shall shew such signes that if it were possible the
respect which they ought to shew unto their Metropolitane For that the Irish had their Archbishops beside many other pregnant testimonies that might bee produced Pope Hildebrands owne Briefe doth sufficiently manifest which is directed to Terdeluachus or Tirlagh the illustrious King of Ireland the ARCHBISHOPS Bishops Abbots Nobles and all Christians inhabiting Ireland And for the Archbishops of Armagh in particular it appeareth most evidently by Bernard in the life of Malachias that they were so far from being Metropolitans and Primates in name onely that they exercised much greater authority before they were put to the charges of fetching Pals from Rome then ever they did afterward and that they did not onely consecrate Bishops but erected also new Bishopricks and Archbishopricks too sometimes according as they thought fitting We reade in Nennius that at the beginning St. Patrick founded here 365. Churches and ordained 365. Bishops beside 3000. Presbyters In processe of time the number of Bishops was daily multiplyed according to the pleasure of the Metropolitan whereof Bernard doth much complaine and that not onely so farre that every Church almost had a severall Bishop but also that in some Townes or Cities there were ordained more than one yea and oftentimes Bishops were made without any certaine place at all assigned unto them And as for the erecting of new Archbishoprickes if we beleeve our Legends King Engus and S. Patrick with all the people did ordaine that in the City and See of Albeus which is Emelye now annexed to Cashell should be the Archbishoprick of the whole Province of Mounster in like manner also Brandubh King of the Lagenians with the consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergie did appoint that in the Citie of Fernes which was the See of Moedog otherwise called Edanus should bee the Archbishopricke of all the Province of Leinster But Bernards testimony wee have no reason not to beleeve relating what was knowne to be done in his owne very time that Celsus the Archbishop of Armagh had of the new constituted another Metropoliticall See but subiect to the first See and to the Archbishop thereof By which wee may see that in the erection of new Archbishopricks and Bishopricks all things were here done at home without consulting with the See of Rome for the matter As for the nomination and confirmation of the Archbishops and Bishops themselves wee finde the manner of advancing Saint Livinus to his Archbishoprick thus laid downe by Boniface in the description of his life When Menalchus the Archbishop was dead Calomagnus the King of Scots and the troope of his Officers with the under-courtiers and the concourse of all that countrey with the same affection of heart cryed out that the holy Priest Livinus was most worthily to bee advanced unto the honour of this order The King more devout than all of them consenting thereunto three or foure times placed the blessed man in the chaire of the Archbishoprick with due honour according to the will of the Lord. In like manner also did King Ecgfrid cause our Cuthbert to be ordained Bishop of the Church of Landisfarne and King Pipin granted the Bishoprick of Salzburg to our Virgilius and Duke Gunzo would have conferred the Bishoprick of Constance upon our Gallus but that he refused it and caused another upon his recommendation to be preferred thereunto In the booke of Landaffe which is called Tilo eyther from Teliau the second Bishop of that place whose life is largely there described or rather from the place it selfe which of old was called Telio we reade that Germanus and Lupus did consecrate chiefe Doctor over all the Britons inhabiting the right side of Britanie S. Dubricius being chosen Archbishop by the King and all the Diocesse and that by the graunt of Mouric the King the Nobilitie Clergie and people they appointed his Episcopall See to bee at Landaff that Oudoceus the third Bishop after him being elected by King Mouric and the chiefe of the Clergie and Laitie of the whole Diocesse was by them sent to the Archibishop of Canterbury for his consecration that Gucaunus the 26 th Bishop of that Church was consecrated by Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury the pastorall staffe being given him in the Court by Edgar chiefe King of the English that next after him in the year 983. election being made by the Kings and the whole Clergie and people of Glamorgan and the pastorall staffe given in the Court by Ethelred chiefe King of the English Bledri was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury who is there named Albricus though in truth at the yeare here assigned Dunstan did still hold the place and that after his decease in the yeare 1022. by the election of the people and Clergie of Landaff and the Kings of the Britons namely King Riderch that reigned at that time through all Wales and Hivel the substitute of the King of Glamorgan Ioseph was consecrated Bishop by Aelnod Archbishop of Canterbury at the word of Cnut King of England in whose Court the Pastorall staffe was given unto him Here in Ireland much after the same manner M r. Campion himselfe setteth down that to the Monarch was granted a negative in the nomination of Bishops at every vocation the Clergie and Laity of the Diocesse recommending him to their King the King to the Monarch the Monarch to the Archbishop of Canterbury although this last clause bee wrongly extended by him to the Bishops of the whole land which properly belonged to the Ostmann strangers that possessed the three cities of Dublin Waterford and Limrick For these being a Colonie of the Norwegians and Livonians and so country-men to the Normans when they had seene England subdued by the Conquerour and Normans advanced to the chief archbishoprick there would needs now assume to themselves the name of Normans also and cause their Bishops to receive their consecration from no other metropolitan but the Archbishop of Canterbury And forasmuch as they were confined within the walls of their own cities the Bishops which they made had no other diocesse to exercise their jurisdiction in but onely the bare circuit of those cities Whereupon we finde a Certificate made unto Pope Innocent the third in the yeare 1216. by the Archbishop of Tuam and his suffraganes that Iohn Papiron the Legate of the Church of Rome comming into Ireland found that Dublin indeed had a Bishop but such a one as did exercise his Episcopall office within the wals onely The first Bishop which they had in Dublin as it appeareth by the Records of that Church was one Donatus or Dunanus as others call him upon whose death in the yeare 1074. Gothric their King with the consent of the Clergie and people of Dublin chose one Patrick for their Bishop and directed him into England to bee consecrated by Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury who sent
Moone they followed the Alexandrian cycle of XIX yeeres whence our golden number had his originall as it was explained unto them by Dionysius Exiguus which is the account that is still observed not onely in the Church of England but also among all the Christians of Greece Russia Asia Aegypt and Aethiopia and was since the time that I my selfe was borne generally received in all Christendome untill the late change of the Kalendar was made by Pope Gregory the XIII th The Northren Irish and Scottish together with the Picts observed the custome of the Britons keeping their Easter upon the Sunday that fell betwixt the XIIII and the XX. day of the Moone and following in their account thereof not the XIX yeeres computation of Anatolius but Sulpicius Severus his circle of LXXXIIII yeeres for howsoever they extolled Anatolius for appointing as they supposed the bounds of Easter betwixt the XIIII and the XX. day of the Moone yet Wilfride in the Synod of Strenshal chargeth them utterly to have rejected his cycle of XIX yeeres from which therefore Cummianus draweth an argument against them that they can never come to the true account of Easter who observe the cycle of LXXXIIII yeeres To reduce the Irish unto conformity with the Church of Rome in this point Pope Honorius the first of that name directed his letters unto them Exhortintg them that they would not esteeme their own paucity seated in the utmost borders of the earth more wise than the ancient or moderne Churches of Christ through the whole world and that they would not celebrate another Easter contrary to the Paschall computations and the Synodall decrees of the Bishops of the whole world and shortly after the Clergie of Rome as wee have said upon the death of Severinus wrote other letters unto them to the same effect Now where Osullevan avoucheth that the common custome used by the Church in celebrating the feast of the Lords resurrection was alwaies observed by the Southerne Irish and now embraced also by the Northren together with the Picts and Britons who received the faith from Irish Doctors when they had knowledge given them of the rite of the Church of Rome in all this according to his common wont he speaketh never a true word For neyther did the Southerne Irish alwayes observe the celebration of Easter commonly received abroad neyther did the Northren Irish nor the Picts nor the Britons many yeeres after this admonition given by the Church of Rome admit that observation among them to speake nothing of his folly in saying that the Britons received the faith from the Irish when the contrary is so well knowne that the Irish rather received the same from the Britons That the common custome of celebrating the time of Easter was not alwaies observed by the Southerne Irish may appeare by those words of Bede in the third booke of his history and the third chapter Porrò gentes Scottorum quae in australibus Hiberniae insulae partibus morabantur jamdudum ad admonitionem Apostolicae sedis antistitis Paschacanonico ritu observare didicerunt For if as this place cleerly proveth the nations of the Scots that dwelt in the Southern parts of Ireland did learne to observe Easter after the canonicall manner upon the admonition of the Bishop of Rome it is evident that before that admonition they did observe it after another manner The word jamdudum which Bede here useth is taken among authors oftentimes in contrary senses either to signifie a great while since or else but lately or erewhile In the former sense it must bee here taken if it have relation to the time wherein Bede did write his book and in the latter also it may be taken if it be referred to the time whereof he treateth which is the more likely opinion namely to the comming of Bishop Aidan into England which fell out about halfe a yeere after that Honorius had sent his admonitorie letters to the Irish. who as hee was the first Bishop of Rome we can reade of that admonished them to reforme their rite of keeping the time of Easter so that the Irish also much about the same time conformed themselves herein to the Romane usage may thus be manifested When Bishop Aidan came into England from the Iland Hy now called Y-Columkille the Colledge of Monkes there was governed by Segenius who in the inscription of the epistle of the clergie of Rome sent unto the Irish is called Segianus Now there is yet extant in Sir Robert Cottons worthy Librarie an epistle of Cummianus directed to this Segienus for so is his name there written Abbot of Y-Columkille wherein he plainly declareth that the great cycle of DXXXII yeeres and the Romane use of celebrating the time of Easter according to the same was then newly brought in into this country For the first yeere saith he wherein the cycle of DXXXII yeeres began to bee observed by our men I received it not but held my peace daring neither to commend it nor to dispraise it That yeere being past he saith he consulted with his ancients who were the successors of Bishop Ailbeus Queranus Coloniensis Brendinus Nessanus and Lugidus who being gathered together in Campo-lene concluded to celebrate Easter the yeere following together with the universall Church But not long after saith hee there arose up a certaine whited wall pretending to keepe the tradition of the Elders which did not make both one but divided them and made voide in part that which was promised whom the Lord as I hope will smite in whatsoever manner he pleaseth To this argument drawne from the tradition of the elders hee maketh answer that they did simply and faithfully observe that which they knew to bee best in their dayes without the fault of any contradiction or animosity and did so recommend it to their posterity and opposeth thereunto the unanimous rule of the Vniversall Catholicke Church deeming this to be a very harsh conclusion Rome erreth Ierusalem erreth Alexandria erreth Antioch erreth the whole world erreth the Scottish onely and the Britons doe alone hold the right but especially hee urgeth the authority of the first of these Patriarchicall Sees which now since the advancement thereof by the Emperour Phocas began to bee admired by the inhabitants of the earth as the place which God had chosen whereunto if greater causes did arise recourse was to bee had according to the Synodicall decree as unto the head of cities and therefore he saith that they sent some unto Rome who returning backe in the third yeere informed them that they met there with a Grecian and an Hebrew and a Scythian and an Aegyptian in one lodging and that they all and the whole world too did keep their Easter at the same time when the Irish were dis-joyned from them by the space of a whole moneth And wee have proved saith Cummianus that the vertue of God
succeeded him did tread just in his steps so farre that being put downe in the Synod of Streanshal yet for feare of his country as before we have heard out of Stephen the writer of the life of Wilfrid he refused to conforme himselfe and chose rather to forgoe his Bishoprick than to submit himselfe unto the Romane lawes Colmanusque suas inglorius abjicit arces Malens Ausonias victus dissolvere leges saith Fridegodus Neither did hee goe away alone but tooke with him all his countrymen that he had gathered together in Lindisfarne or Holy Iland the Scottish monks also that were at Rippon in Yorkshire making choice rather to quit their place than to admit the observation of Easter and the rest of the rites according to the custome of the Church of Rome And so did the matter rest among the Irish about forty yeeres after that untill their own countryman Adamnanus perswaded most of them to yeeld to the custome received herein by all the Churches abroad The Picts did the like not long after under King Naitan who by his regall authority commanded Easter to be observed throughout all his provinces according to the cycle of XIX yeeres abolishing the erroneous period of LXXXIIII yeeres which before they used and caused all Priests and Monkes to bee shorne croune-wise after the Romane manner The monkes also of the Iland of Hy or Y-Columkille by the perswasion of Ecgbert an English Priest that had been bred in Ireland in the yeere of our Lord DCCXVI forsooke the observation of Easter and the Tonsure which they had received from Columkille a hundred and fiftie yeeres before and followed the Romane rite about LXXX yeeres after the time of Pope Honorius and the sending of Bishop Aidan from thence into England The Britons in the time of Bede retained still their old usage untill Elbodus who was the chiefe Bishop of Northwales and dyed in the yeere of our Lord DCCCIX as Caradoc of Lhancarvan recordeth brought in the Romane observation of Easter which is the cause why his disciple Nennius designeth the time wherein he wrote his history by the character of the XIX yeeres cycle and not of the other of LXXXIV But howsoever North-wales did it is very probable that West-wales which of all other parts was most eagerly bent against the traditions of the Romane Church stood out yet longer For we finde in the Greeke writers of the life of Chrysostome that certaine Clergie men which dwelt in the Iles of the Ocean repaired from the utmost borders of the habitable world unto Constantinople in the dayes of Methodius who was Patriarch there from the yeer DCCCXLII to the yeere DCCCXLVII to enquire of certaine Ecclesiasticall traditions and the perfect and exact computation of Easter Whereby it appeareth that these questions were kept still a foot in these Ilands and that the resolution of the Bishop of Constantinople was sought for from hence as well as the determination of the Bishop of Rome who is now made the only Oracle of the world Neither is it here to be omitted that whatsoever broyles did passe betwixt our Irish that were not subject to the See of Rome and those others that were of the Romane communion in the succeeding ages they of the one side were esteemed to be Saints as well as they of the other Aidan for example and Finan who were counted ringleaders of the Quartadeeiman party as well as Wilfrid and Cuthbert who were so violent against it Yet now adayes men are made to beleeve that out of the communion of the Church of Rome nothing but Hell can bee looked for and that subjection to the Bishop of Rome as to the visible Head of the Universall Church is required as a matter necessary to salvation Which if it may goe currant for good Divinity the case is like to goe hard not onely with the twelve hundred British Monkes of Bangor who were martyred in one day by Edelfride king of Northumberland whom our Annals style by the name of the Saints but also with St. Aidan and St. Finan who deserve to bee honoured by the English nation with as venerable a remembrance as I doe not say Wilfrid and Cuthbert but Austin the Monke and his followers For by the ministery of Aidan was the kingdome of Northumberland recovered from paganisme whereunto belonged then beside the shire of Northumberland and the lands beyond it unto Edenborrow Frith Cumberland also and Westmorland Lancashire Yorkshire and the Bishopricke of Durham and by the meanes of Finan not onely the Kingdome of the East-Saxons which contained Essex Middlesex and halfe of Hertfordshire regained but also the large Kingdome of Mercia converted first unto Christianity which comprehended underit Glocestershire Herefordshire Worcestershire Warwickshire Leicestershire Rutlandshire Northamptonshire Lincolneshire Huntingtonshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Staffordshire Darbyshire Shropshire Nottinghamshire Chesshire and the other halfe of Hertfordshire The Scottish that professed no subjection to the Church of Rome were they that sent preachers for the conversion of these countries and ordained Bishops to governe them namely Aidan Finan and Colman successively for the kingdome of Northumberland for the East-Saxons Cedd brother to Ceadda the Bishop of Yorke before mentioned for the Middle-Angles which inhabited Leicestershire and the Mercians Diuma for the paucity of Priests saith Bede constrained one Bishop to bee appointed over two people and after him Cellach and Trumhere And these with their followers notwithstanding their division from the See of Rome were for their extraordinary sanctity of life and painfulnesse in preaching the Gospel wherein they went farre beyond those of the other side that afterward thrust them out and entred in upon their labours exceedingly reverenced by all that knew them Aidan especially who although hee could not keepe Easter saith Bede contrary to the manner of them which had sent him yet he was carefull diligently to performe the workes of faith and godlinesse and love according to the manner used by all holy men Whereupon hee was worthily beloved of all even of them also who thought otherwise of Easter than he did and was had in reverence not only by them that were of meaner ranke but also by the Bishops themselves Honorius of Canterbury and Felix of the East-Angles Neither did Honorius and Felix any other way carry themselves herein than their predecessors Laurentius Mellitus Iustus had done before them who writing unto the Bishops of Ireland that dissented from the Church of Rome in the celebration of Easter and many other things made no scruple to prefixe this loving and respectfull superscription to their letters To our Lords and most deare brethren the Bishops or Abbots throughout all Scotland Laurentius Mellitus and Iustus Bishops the servants of the servants of God For howsoever Ireland at that time received not the same lawes wherewith other nations were governed yet it so